Difficult to rein in mistakes

Wet conditions a factor in turnovers

Colts 29 Bears 17

February 05, 2007|By Brian Hamilton, Tribune staff reporter.

MIAMI — It was ceaselessly gray and wet Sunday, and faith that typical Florida weather would triumph went unfulfilled. It rained a lot, making the local poncho industry the first big winner of the day.

The Colts, of course, are feeling pretty decent after slogging their way to a 29-17 victory in Super Bowl XLI. They might have made sure to slap a little pine tar on their palms before handling the Lombardi Trophy, however, considering how slippery an item the football was all night.

"How about that!" Colts quarterback and game MVP Peyton Manning said. "I come down to Miami and play in the soaking rain."

The precipitation started coming down significantly about 20 minutes before kickoff, and it was a factor in five lost fumbles, a couple of kicking gaffes and tackling that was sometimes like trying to corral a Crisco-coated chicken.

"I was just thinking to myself, `Has it ever been this bad of conditions [in a Super Bowl]?' and I can't remember one," Colts coach Tony Dungy said. "We knew handling the ball was going to be tough. Again, I think we just showed we can win any number of ways."

The weather didn't make winning easier on the Colts. Holder Hunter Smith dropped the snap on the extra point after the team's first touchdown, which kicker Adam Vinatieri said was a direct result of a slick ball.

"We have 12 kicking balls," said Vinatieri, who also missed a field goal late in the first half on what he called a "pretty sloppy" field. "Unfortunately, 12 balls get real, real wet in a game like this."

But Grossman dropped a center-quarterback exchange late in the first half, and then another on the first possession of the second half when the offense needed to seize even a little momentum. However, Manning and Colts center Jeff Saturday did not have any issues with snaps and didn't take any extra precautions during the game.

"It wasn't tough to handle [the ball] once I got it from the center," Grossman said. "It would just slide off my hands. That was the tough part of it."

And then there were the missed tackles because of the literally slippery ballcarriers, mostly plaguing the Bears, who often play in conditions much worse than Sunday's.

"Everyone was playing on the same field," Colts linebacker Cato June said. "The field conditions weren't as bad as it looked. But it definitely brings another dimension to the game because it's raining and slick. It's just a matter of sticking to your fundamentals and doing what you're supposed to do."